Book Reviews

After Fight Club (1997) was seen by my eyes and analyzed by my brain, it became my favorite movie of all time, along with Fear in Loathing in Las vegas, starring Johnny Deep. I personally don't think much of Brad Pitt for acting skills or good looks, but this changed after I saw him ripped for this movie, and playing Tyler Durten, one of the world's most psychedelic characters, who could not have came into existence without the world's best author, in my opignion and in many others, Chuck Palanuik. Edward Norten was also amazing in this movie as he slowly discoveres who he really is and how to best overcome his fears.




After this movie took my breath away, I had to read the book from Chuck, written in 1996. As Many readers will say, the book was sooo much better than the movie. Why they need to change things like where characters meet nd how far they go, I don't know but they could have easily made it a 3 hour movie or better yet, make a sequel. But that's not why Chuck Palanuik writes. If he wanted to, he could write screen plays, but he knows that he can take it much further writting books. He just has an amazing way with words. Just take it from his afterword in the book 'Haunted'. To think he would read the short story 'Guts' which was the first chapter of the book, a story by Saint Gut-Free, and almost every time two or three people lisening would faint! Most times, as I read through one of his materpieces, I feel the need to discribe the greatest details to my friends or simply keep them posted on how the story is unraveling itself with a new twist in every chapter. I have never been so captivated, interrested and entertainned while reading anything other than a novel by Chuck Palanuik. His mind and his words work very well together to bring you imaginative books that are simply like no other. The crazy and amazing ideas are mostly related to possible events or even based on true life experiences. You can hear a caracter's thoughts and imagine another's one's criminal act as if you were watching it happen in a movie. Most books bring you places you might not even want to see in a majour motion pictures, just in your mid, while you are some place alone, calm and safe. The best part about Chuck Palanuik is his mind, and his sometimes dark humour that portrais so more truth in every novel, story and idea. I have read Fight Club, Pygmy, Invisible Monsters, Haunted, and Choke and I am still reading Snuff and Diary. I still want to read Lullaby, Survivor, Stranger than fiction, Fugitives and Refuges and Tell all by Chuck Palanuik.





Book Reviews/Summaries:






Fight Club is a story about a man who is fed up of living life at his dead end job day to day. His suffers from imsomnia and questions his very existence every time he wakes up. Some advice he gets from the doctor inspired him to visit the support groups for Testicular Cancer, to really see pain. This cleaver man makes a friend named Bob, who has lost his family to due his past history. He use to workout too much and took steroids, now he lost his balls and grew bitch tits. When he finally lets go, he cries. That night he slept like a baby. The narrator found a way to cope, that is untill another faker shows up. It's Marla Singer, a goth looking chick who smokes continuously and does not seem to value her life enough to even show up to support groups. She does them all, just like him. He thinks it's cheaper than a movie and there is free coffee, but with her presence he can't cry anymore. He had to find something better, a new way to cope. In the book, he met Tyler Durden on a nude beach, where he sat in the palm of a hand, which was a shadow casted upon the sand of the beach from different sized logs he had placed there on purpose. In the film, Tyler Durden was introduced on the plane, sitting next to him, with the same briefcase, only filled with soap. On his way back home, the main character losses his lugage due to suspicious vibration and then go home to find out his condo was blown up. He decided to call Marla, no, he changes his mind, he calls Tyler for help. After they met in the bar Tyler asked him if he had anything to loose. He had lost all he ever had, at least all he cared about. Tyler asked him to punch him. The second the first hit was given, he knew for sure that he needed to fight more. Tyler punched him back real hard after saying he did not want to die without any scars. Fight Club was created after days. So many men needed what they offered. A basement where they could fight other men who needed just one, underground moment of victory. They started showing up to work all bloody, broken and bruised up. Next thing you know, Fight Club is they reason why to cut your nails or shave your face. It grew so big, so fast. He could no longer keep up. From Fight Club to Project Mayham. Tyler had them all trained like space monkeys he said. They started getting into real trouble pulling pranks in everyday events. In the end, it got too far, a friend was lost and buildings were set on fire and even blown up! The twist in the end, when revealed, even the characters don't want to accept it, but it's the truth. In the novel Tyler boilled Marla's mother into soap! I don't know how that could have been done on the big screen but it happened in my head thanks to the creative mastermind of the brilliant and imaginative Chuck Palanuik. Chapter 6 was a short story originally about going to work and hating your job. The details described what everyone else is thinking but keeping to themselves. The author tells all so you don't have to. Just read the book and do not talk about fight club. I repeat do not talk about fight club.

"Pygmy is a dark comedy about terrorism and racism. The story is about a boy, Pygmy, who is a 13 year old foreign exchange student travelling to the United States on a mission. Every word on the book is written in his broken english as he documents each of his days living with his foster family the Cedars. The Cedars are a white surburban middle-class cristian family that he calls Cow father, Chicken mother, Pig dog brother and Cat sister. He calls them like he sees them and he is staying for six months. He is a highly intelligent boy who was taken from his parents at a young age due to his high test scores. Since then he has been trained to fight as a terrorist would, in order to revenge the death of his parents of whom he remembers so little of. Problems come in the way as he researches the american lifestyle and progresses further with operation HAVOK, his main mission. He and a dozen other delegates, both male and female, his classmates growing up, are all working towards this same mission which involves amongst other thigs, impregnating american youth or getting pregnant by them. They had all been trained in martial arts, chemistry, and brainwashed into hating americans and the United States with a passion. Ostacles include communicating the english language, shopping at WALMART, fighting a bully with clear yellow hair and lighting bolt eyes, earning his pigdog brother's respect, falling in love with his cat sister, and obtainning required substances and materials needed for his science fair project. This book seemed hard to read though in the first couple of pages but I quickly feel in love with Pygmy and his wild and innocent way of thinking. I cried at the end because it was over. I had to move on to another book! Pygmy, he would judge a person so poorly and quickly think of how he could kill that person, literally which martial arts move he would do and how they would respond. His goal was to kill millions of people with an explosive National Science Fair project that would be presented in Washington D.C. if it won first prize. This story shows a lot of emotion and you can really hear his thoughts through every scene. Pygmy is a story one would only wish could be seen on the big screen.

Invisible Monters is just about what the title might suggest. One who is so hideously ugly or even monster looking that the general public will ingnore him or her as if they were invisible. This book is so full of surprises I would not even know where to begin! Chuck Palanuik made another great success with this one. You don't want to put this book down till you finish it, seriously it's that amazing. All the character's deepest secrets are only revealled at the end but more and more is obvious as you read through. This story is about a model and her best friend Evy. They went to modelling school together and enjoyed getting much attention at IKEA furniture type stores where they would act out their every day scenarios while people watched. She loves attention, maybe too much. She was always jealous of her little brother for getting more attention because he was gay and got an STD and his parents kicked him out. After the main character had been in a terrible car accident, she managed to drive herself to the hospital. Her fiance came to visit her in the hospital and saw the pictures that were taken before she was hospitalized. The accident left this model horribly disfigured for life. That was unless she attempted to have reconstructional surgery done. She had no idea what she looked like because no one could show her the photos or even a mirror. The damage caused her to loose her voice and ability to eat solid foods. Shortly, after the sympathy and patience over her recovery, her fiance leaves her and she can no longer model, not even hand or foot work! She finds herself with very little to live for. While in the hospital, she meets a beautiful woman in the speech therapy office named Brandy Alexander. This lady becomes her new saviour as she introduces her to many stylish ways to hide her disfigured face using various layers of veils. Evy, her best friend, asked her to move in with her after she leaves the hospital. All her things were already moved. In reality she did not have much of a choice, besides Evy was hoping she could take care of her cat while she would be gone south for a photo shoot. One night a man came into Evy's home while the main character was asleep in her bed. It was her ex fiancé! He was planning to stab someone but whom? His ex? Evy? She finds out that her best friend was having an affair with her fiancé the whole time. She burns Evy's house down while her ex is locked in a closet. She leaves in her night gound with a large riffle and goes to find Brandy Alexander at the hotel where she was staying with the Sofonda sisters, already packed and ready to go. They travel together with her ex in the trunk and visit homes for sale while stealing drugs from their pharmacies in the bathrooms. Brandy needs all kinds of drugs to keep up with herself. Who was Evy really? And her ex fiancé? And who was responsible for the accident? Who shot her? And how were Brandy Alexander and her related in a past life? What happened to her younger brother Shane after he got kicked out of the house? Who will become the next Shannon Mcfarland, top model? This story is wicked and twisted with new plots and crazy theories in every page. This story could very well be a hit series or tv drama. But the most of it comes in the form of Chuck Palanuik's words.

The first time I saw this book in the dark it freaked me out. The face glows 3D in the dark! The story of Haunted is not so much scary as it it cruel, strange and simply horrifying! What happens is 18 people answer an ad to a writter's retreat for three months. This was a special retreat that promised to help them relax and find inspiration for their next master piece. They all went to meet at the coffee shop first for their differents reasons. Although most of them are very different from one another, they are all going to this retreat to get away or simply hind from something that have done or been involved in. The people who end up staying together in an old theater for three months needed to forget their lives for some time. To somewhat of their advantage, they could not communicate with the outside word. They could only bring one bag with them on the bus that came to pick them up. They were told that food and drinks were included, along with lights and heating. The masterpiece that is written is a contribution of all their efforts, all their stories and past life experiences. What they did to survive and how they all become victims of themselves. The food runs out. The lights start burning out. The furnace breaks. The toillets clog. The doors jam. The washing machine breaks. They are locked in and have no idea of the time of day or how long they have been trapped. People start freezing and starving to death. They each contributed to the outcome of their own misery. They secretly wanted to stay trapped and needed to suffer in order to tell a great story. Old Mr. Brandon Whittier is the criminal master mind that organized the whole thing. He had done the same stunt over and over after he got sick of lying to nurses in order to sleep with them and get money atfer lying about his age. Names are not always given and sometimes they only make stories more confusing. Insteat they are each given nicknames that remind us of their story and how they got to where they are. Saint-Gut-Free is a sex addict that loved masterbatting. He had to loose his small intestine to survive what he called pearl diving. He also had the idea to start a romance with Mother Nature in order to spice uo their story. Mother Nature studied reflexology and lived like a hippie, dirty and poor. A friend she studied with shows her how to make more money with her talents by practicing reflexology to sexually arrouse well paying customers. Problem is her friend's pimp wanted too much money as his cut from the customers. She killed this man using her tongue. Next thing you know her body was been found in a river with a gunshot to the head. Next there is Miss America. She invented the exercise wheel and lost a lot of weight with it. She fell in love with a jerk in the green room and accidentally got pregnant. Lady Baglady is a rich upper class lady who loves to hold charity events for the sick and homeless. She got tired of her fancy life style and found out how to let go- by slumming the streets as if she were a bum. She and her husband witnesed a beaten girl get kidnapped from the streets while they were sleeping. Next thing you know her husband gets killed and the secret is out! Now she was affraid for her own life! The Earl of Slander recongnized his vet that saves his dog and wrote a fictional biography about this childhood actor because the true story was not a very interresting story. He made it real by planting evidence and making it look like suicide. Never trust a man with a tape recorder. Karma hits him back when he becomes rich and famous and his dog gets sick. This time he can't be saved! The Duke of Vandals is an artist that posted his art illegally in museums and art galleries. He got noticed for sticking his pictures of his girlfriend or dog in bathrooms and empty walls. He became famous and was aked to kill off other artists in order to make more money as an artist hitman. Mrs Clark got plastic surgery to make a porno with her husband in order to save money for their baby on its way. They ended up hating the film and destroying it. Her husband never came home from the video rental store. Then her daughter Cassandra all grown up visits an art gallery and looks through the nightmare box brought by Mr. Whittier. She said it made her want to become a writter. She disspeared afterwards and acted as careless as a ghost. She went to the retreat before her mother and came back mutilated and empty inside like a robot. She never spoke about where she was but she admitted to hurting herself. Mrs Clark kills her daughter or what was left of her. Then she found the ad in the daughter's room and signed up in order to hopefully find answers. Now she becomes the new villan of the writter's retreat after Mr.Whittier is gone. Director denial has a cat named Cora Reynolds who as a person also had a cat and felt sorry for abused dolls and broken teddy bears. She took care of them. It was part of her job. It got out of control and when asked to take time off work she pointed a gun to her co-workers and kidnapped the sex dolls then drove off to perhaps kill herself. All she did was set bobby traps so that detectives would stop taking advantage of the child dolls. They were so realistic, that was her fault. Reverend Godless used to dress up as a woman in order to make money by charging people to punch him while singing Barbra Streisand as he and a friend had no income after the war. He made friends with a girl who took pilot lessons to help them get the Dalai Lama. The Matchmaker got his name for paying a man whore to sleep with his girl and then break her heart so that she would marry him on the rebound and it worked! He came from a family with a secret that saved their lives during the war. This same tragedy will later occur to himself later, voluntarily. Sister Vigilante hated jury duty and made up a bowling-ball monster to kill off random people becuase with a vilian in town, crime rates reduce dramatically. Chef Assassin, also known as Richard Talbott, carries his chef knifes with him everywhere. He hates restaurent critics and killed 16 critics using his Kutting-Blok knifes and blackmailled the maker for 1-5million dollars. Comrade Snarky fainted from famine and Chef Assassin cut her up to eat her. When we woke up she smelt the meat everyone was eating and took a bite of her own rose tattooed ass. After realizing what happened and loosing so much blood, she died for real. She thought she deserved it because she once participated in a she-male rape at a womens-only club meeting. Agent Tattletale always carries his video camera to capture every moment. He once killed a detective who was spying on him to see if he was really to 'handicaped' to be working. Afterwards he took a six week course to become a detective and went into the same line of work, spying on health-pension plan people. He then confessed to a woman who held him captive when he got caught. The Missing Link says he killed someone and says that we are all judged on how we treat our animals. He went on a date with a girl who believed that all Chewlah tribe people have dick faces and become bearfoot /yetis /sasquatches at night and feed on humans. Countress Foresight is able to see the history of objects when she touched them. She murdered an antiques dealer to steal Marilyn Monroe's aborted phetus and then discovered that he killed her with drugs for the jar with the phetus inside. Turns out it was only a doll inside a milky bottel. Baroness Frostbite worked at a log on a ski hill where people died while 'hotpotting'. She got frost bite from trying to save a religious man who feel into the 'hotpot' by melting snow in her mouth all night. Miss Sneezy always looks sick. She father collected old tombstones that were infected with the Type 1 Keegan virus. She was exposed and ten years later, it killed her parents, teachers, class mates and boyfriend. She managed to espace the prison 'Orphanage' where she was captive by travelling underwater in her plastic suit with an air supply. Is she still infected? Will she die? We never really know who the main narrator is but obviously it was someone who survived. This is a must read!

Victor Mancini is a sexoholic in recovery working at Colonial Dunsboro, an eighteeth century historical theme park. His crazy mother is sick in the hospital and stopped eating. He works with his friend Denny, who he met at his sexoholic meetings, when hes not off with some girl fucking in a closet or bathroom. He needs to work overtime to afford a feeding tube for his mother and pay for her expensive hospital bills. He comes up with a scam to help make heroes out of strangers and get some extra cash on the side. He pretends to choke on food while dinning in upscale restaurants and lets someone save him each time. Meanwhile he meets a doctor named Paige Marshall, who says she can restore his mother's memory if she slept with him and used their aborted phetus for a needed neural transplant. He never knew how he felt about the subject but he never went through with it. He needed someone to need him and he liked his mother where she was. He knew he could never fall in love for real if she was still in his life. After so many times that she came back to claim him when she got out of prison, he always went back to her, even if he had a loving foster family each time. She made him believe that he could be a doctor or even god if he really wanted to. She told him to map the world in his image, because nothing could ever be as perfect as you can imagine it. She knew from experience due to her line of work, as an exorcist. She made him remember code names like Nurse Flamingo and Dr.Blaze which meant emergencies like fires or gunmen, things which would save his life one day. When not at work, Victor meets his daily dose of ass, visits strips clubs where he sees the dancers more as paitients then strippers, and helps his friend Denny collect rocks to help him kick the sex habit. When visiting his mom at St-Anthony's, he sees many delusional people like squirrels that stuff chewed food in their pockets or undressers, that need to wear special clothing so it stays on. Many of St-Anthoney's patients need to believe what they believe is real, but the very thought of it keeps them from living normal lives as they cannot let go of the past. Victor gets the idea one day to start confessing to every sin anyone has ever accused him of because their biggest demons can then be destroyed if they manage to face them first. Next thing you know he has the reputation of a pet killer or rappist or molester, anything pretty much that would scar just about anybody for life. He was just trying to help them cope and their doctors are very gratefull that he helped put them at peace. Denny moves in with Victor at his mom's house after his parents kick him out, along with his many rocks. When Denny sees a lot down the street that his uncle left him, he brings all his rocks there and starts building a wall, then another. TV crews check him out and think it might be a church or maybe a castle, but no one knows for sure. Ida Mancini, Victor's mother, want him to read her red diary, but it's all written in Italian so he gets Dr. Marshall to translate it for him. His mom had a great big secret she wanted him to find out, something about his father or his past, he is not sure, but his mother barely recongnizes him when he visits her. How he knew about the diary is he had to get his friend Denny to play him and go visit his mom while he pretended to be Fred Hastings, an attorney that represented her in court a few times. Now what will happen to his dying mother? What is the big secret? Will Victor ever get with Paige Marshall? Will his heroes ever find out how he was faking it? What is Denny building? Read this novel and find out half of it! Just like most of Chuck's novels, this book is very wild and informative. I think there is more than just a story in these pages. There is a life process evolving into something new. A place where nothing is what it looks like and all can change from one day to the next, as long as you believe so. (There was also a 2008 film directed by Clark Gregg. With Kathryn Alexander, Teodorina Bello, Kate Blumberg, etc. Watch a trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hr67ych5pDI -like many books made into films, the book was better, but if you are too lazy to read it the way Chuck intended it to be, then you must watch the movie to at least try and understand the lessons to be learnt if there was any.)

The main character in this story is Cassie Wright, a smart girl gone porn star after her dreams of acting and becoming famous. Mrs. Wright becomes a real sex symbol, only problem is she accidentally conceived a child while filming a classic movie with Mr. Branch Bacardi. The child was given away into adoption in order to restore her career after a one year break, but she kept a heart shaped locket around her neck for years, one with a baby picture inside. She is planning on retiring after her last film: World Whore Three-The whore to end all whores, a film in which she will have sex with 600 men in total, beating a new world record! Cassie had regrets after leaving her only child and wanted to find that lost child's forgiveness by leaving him the loyalties to her latest film to pay for university, and also her life insurance due to pay off if she dies during the shooting of the film. Hence the title of the book; Snuff. What is most entertaining about this book is how the narration is divided into four characters. They each get their turn to explain who they are and why they are shooting a world record porno movie. Mr.72 is a young 20 year old boy who showed up with a bouquet of white roses and plans to save Cassie from her life of porn and become his long lost mother, the one Darrin always wanted. He risked looking his life (job, money, foster family) by showing up to the filming. Mr. 137 is an actor who use to play a Dan Bayan detective character on a tv sit com till he was fired when a homosexual gang bang porno film he stared in was made public. He is a big fan of both Cassie Wright's '100 strokes' shampoo and Branch Bacardi's life-sized sex toys. He carries a canvas dog covered with autographs and signatures from stars and celebrities. He scores a bottle of Viagra and swallows a dangerous amount. Mr. 600, possibly the oldest actor in the industry, Branch Bacardi got Cassie Wright into porn in the first place, by drugging her and filming the rape act. This was a film called World War 1 and started Mrs. Wright's career as a porn star. Mr. Bacardi brought a cyanide pill in Cassie's locket, one he says she asked him to bring her. Will he manage to give it to her? Will someone else accidentally take it instead? If the cyanide pill doesn't kill someone, perhaps a Viagra overdose will come close to doing the job. Our last narrator is Sheila, she is the talent wrangler with the stop watch. She will accept bribes from the pud-pullers waited to get their minute with Cassie. She calls them each by number, three at a time, when your number is called, the waiting is over and your time is up. Once you go through the doors towards the stage and the bright lights, you don't come back out the same way. This is one twisted laugh-out-loud funny story with new angles in every chapter as you know what each character was thinking about another and nothing will be kept secret at the end. One of Palanuik's finest novels. Two thumbs up!

Diary is a story about a Women's diary. This story is being told as it is written in her diary. Only weird part is people know what she's written before she writes it, because she's written it before. The diary is like a long letter she can give her husband once he awakens from his coma, after trying to kill himself in his car, parked in the garage, with only a half tank of gas. She thought she knew her husband and loved him, but finally discovers that she was only following her pre-destined destiny. Misty Marie Kleinman and Peter Wilmot met in art school. Peter quickly recognized her brilliant talent and told her she did not need to go to school to become a famous artist and have her art shown in museums. As a child Misty had always fantasized about a special island where people lived in peace in large rich stone houses with rose gardens and picket fences. When living in a trailer park in Tecunseh Lake with her mother, she would draw these houses and the island. She saw every detail so clear in her mind that it could be real. She could have been there before. The more she thought about the island, the less she appreciated the real world. When Peter saw a painting she made of a beautigul stone house, he told her that was his neighbour's house, where he lived his entire life. She could not believe him as she invented the house and it's every detail. It came from her head. After her husband Peter becomes coma-toast, she starts remembering the details of their relationship. Their dates, adventures and the stories Peter would tell her. He believed in her more than anyone ever did. He was almost certain that she would become a talent young artist in the near future. Once they dropped out of art school together, they got a place in New York. Then when his father Harrow Wilmot died, they moved to the island where his mother Grace lived, in order to stay with her and take care of her. Shortly after, they had a child together, Tabbitha Wilmot or Tabbi for short. Tabbi was a beautiful island girl with the same dark hair as her father's. Misty found herself trapped, as queen of the slaves, waitting tables in order to pay for her child and now Grace, as the only family she had left. Misty and her mother were no longer on good terms since she lied about her wedding and never invited her. Grace was always happy about Misty, even on the worse of days. Tabbi spent almost all her time with her grand-mother Grace indoors, working to find missing pieces of people's discotinued tea sets. After Peter almost died, Misty found herself swamped with work. Her husband Peter, who was a carpenter, had made renovations in some of the main island summer people's homes. The problem was that when he did so, entire rooms would dissapear from existance. People left as kinds of upset messages about their missing linen closets, guest rooms, bathrooms or kitchens, starting with Angel Delaporte's missing kitchen. He made a whole in a wall and discovered Peter's warnings, threats or suicide note written in black spray paint all around the walls of his missing kitchen, which was then sealed from existence. Angel became a friend to Misty, as he really admired her art work and studied graphology, the study of writting. He examined traits in Peter's writting to help analize what he was going through at the time preceeding his suicide attempt. For a long time, after Tabbi was born, Misty did not paint or draw as she was either uninspired or too busy working. One day she was to start painting again and the whole twon knew it. They knew, as the legend says, that her talent would save them as it has in past, many years ago. Peter always told her that the best artists had to feel pain or suffer alot before finding true inspiration and become a great artist. After her husband was in a coma for over 100 days, then she trips at work and hurts her knee, then loses her daughter who drowns, then finds out the truth about her husband's family and past love life, this is when she has nothing left to loose. She starts painting canvas after canvas with her eyes tapped shut. She did not even know what she was drawing or painting, it did not matter to her. The doctor and Grace made sure she did 100 canvases before letting her leave the room where she stayed in the hotel. She had to cut off her own cast to liberate herself and check out the room in the hotel that Peter did some work in and covered up. After all this she found out that Angel Delaporte was murdered and all the houses that Peter did work in have been burned down by some kind of rebellious anarchist group. What was really going on? Misty could no longer focus as her headaches got worse. She only felt better when painting. It was better then all the drinking she did while she wasn't painting... What was going to happen? A detective was trying to find out her husband's cause of 'death' and why Harrow did not appear to have a death certificate. Misty could not help him and instead appeared to be the crazy one or possibly the suspect of Angel's murder. What did this mystery tale lead to? What will happen to Misty Wilmot, the greatest artist Waytensea Island has ever known? Read this book and find out. Truely an inspiring tale full of magic and hidden messages. One of Chuck's best woprk so far.

Counting 1, counting 2, counting 3,...The secret to forgetting the big picture is to focus on the details. To forget about the every detail, look at the big picture. A therapist will tell you, after loosing your life (your family), to pick up a hobby. Even constructive destruction will help you escape. Lullaby is a wicked tale about a culling song and the journey on which it took it's victims and their loved ones. Some killed by accident, others for no reason, and some either when seeking revenge, sex, a thrill, money (or gems) or simply trying to save or kill other people all around the world. Carl Streator investigates crib deaths for a story and notices a pattern. All deaths occurred where a Poems and Rhymes from Around the World book was, mostly opened to page 27. This culling song meant to relieve pain from suffering children or soldiers has been used as a lullaby and is now a weapon. Mr. Streator soon finds out he was not the only one aware of the effects of the culling song. He meets with Helen Hoover Boyle, a real-estate agent who sales ans resales known to be haunted houses. She called a newly wed couple the night before they died after finding out that they wanted to demolish a historical house they just bought. Mr. Streator soon finds out he can no longer denounce Helen to the police as he needs her help to control his new power. Along with Helen's secretary Mona and her boyfriend Oyster, Mr. Streator and Helen Hoover Boyle travel across the country on a quest to destroy every copy of the culling song and hopefully also find the grimoire, an old witches book or spells, including the culling song. On their journey, they find out many things about witches and spells. They became like a family of witches, traveling the country on a secret mission to save lives and try to fix their wrongs. People with power always want more and this separates the group, when Oyster attacks Helen for a copy of the poem. They did not all want the same thing, even if they all went with the plan. Oyster is a knowledgeable vegan who believes humans should die in order to save the planet. We have negatively contributed to overpopulation, spreading disease, polluting, and bringing pest species overseas either on purpose or by accident. Mona finds out how Helen's daily planner was the grimoire the entire time, written in transparent ink and then she does not want to let it go. She throws a fit when Helen says she with translate it herself instead of letting her try. Revenge is an ugly thing after Carl gets arrested for being a suspect to multiple murders committed by a fellow necrophiliac agent named Nash. Helen translates a few spells to fly, a love spell, one to heal animals, speak to animals, and even occupy another animal's body, even another human! This is how Helen chooses to save Carl from prison. Only problem is her body was left at the office and Mona let Oyster enter her body, and leave her for dead. All this as revenge to Helen for occupying Mona's body and getting a make-over for telling Carl he was under a love spell. They were actually in love, perfect for each-other as they were so much alike. Only problem is she is now stuck in the Sarge's body and Mona and Oyster took off with the grimoire, performing miracles everyday. Revenge is a nasty site in the Lullaby. Great work of fiction, truly believable! I loved it!

What to say about Rant Casey? His true name was Buster, but he was known to many in different ways. Some called him Buddy, others Chester, or even Green Taylor Simms (Historian). This book is a biography written about a rebellious serial killer who grew up like no boy living in Middleton could. As if this child had previously lived on earth, he understood more than other kids his age and knew what lies parents would make up about the Tooth fairy and Easter bunny. He used his knowledge to play tricks on people, especially adults. Remember feeling brains and eye balls with your eyes closed at a Halloween party? What if they were real? Well this is how our notorious Rant got his nickname. He was great at playing mind games, he could get anyone to play along to any trick for as long as he wanted. He found treasure and started paying children for their lost teeth, each coin worth thousands of dollars, it went on and kept going on because parents would never reveal the truth about the tooth fairy. Why would they when they were also benefiting from the find? He convinced all the boys of his grade to pretend they had chronic boner syndrome and form an alliance. This allowed Rant to avoid being embaressed and humiliated in geometry, as he told this to his teacher Mr. Wyland, as an excuse not to have to write on the board. How did Rant get hard without arousal? He enjoyed black widow spider bites and various other poisonous creature interactions he came across when stuffing his arms down burrows and holes. The first time he was bit by a black widow spider was when he was looking for Easter eggs in the garden that his mom had hid for him to find. Outraged when his dad left him home alone and went to church, he later hid explosive eggs all around the property so that they would explode when he cut the grass! Some how his dad knew he would be ok. Rant also had a high tolerance for rabies, having had rabies most his life, he transferred it to many girls and even boys. Rant also had pro-founded senses as he could tell what you ate up to three days ago just by eating you out. He could also tell who a tampon belonged to just by smelling the blood. As if Rant understood his purpose his entire life, he left his small home town for the big city in pursuit of who he knew as his real father, he who once told him about the Tooth Fairy treasure. His father told him he would fulfill his destiny in the city and knew somehow that he would also never see him again. But how did his dad know details about the friends Rant would meet, like Shot Dunyun, Neddy Nelson, Echo Lawrence and Green Taylor Simms? Rant Casey knew every generation of himself but did not know what they had done. Party crashing, a nighttime demolition derby was designed to bring people back where they wanted to be, whether it was to escape a handicap, to catch rabies, to have fun living on the dangerous side, to cause traffic jams or bottlenecks, to change history or simply to become immortal, each Night timer had their reason to party crash. With different themes for each open window, why not go all out and parade down the streets with your x-mas tree or just married vehicle? What Rant was trying to accomplish was to save his mother, Irene Casey, before she would be impregnated with her child. But this was not what he was sent out to do. They say Rant lived a short, violent life, but Rant was very popular, even after death, and part of him will live forever due to both careful planing and random mistakes. I honestly believed this was a true story until I read about boosted peaks. Very possible future technology or simply a past that was erased from all of history. This was a really crazy twisted story with a few punches similar to fight club. The best story since! Read this book to find out all the juicy details and how dogs ran wild in Middleton, perhaps the origin of werewolves and also how Rant's mother use to bury items in her cakes to avoid having Rant and his dad swallow it all to fast and not take time to enjoy each bite. She also tought Rant how to write secret messages on Easter eggs using wax. Poor Irene must have never found her true love, but she did love her son Buddy, as she called him. She knew he never meant to kill anyone. She must have suffered great pain after his accident, although she never truly lost him, until he left to the City for good and got a job working as a pest exterminator... Read Rant! Even if it takes you some time to digest as you go through it, it is well worth it! I love it and give the book two thumbs up!





Survivor was almost as extreme, fierce and horrid as Fight Club. Or Invisible Monsters. Tender Branson comes from a long line of Adams, born in the Creedish church colony where all first sons are Adams and every other boy is "Tender" and every girl is "Biddy". Same names for children born as working slaves to the Creedish elders. Tender Branson had many brothers and sisters growing up, but at the age of 17 he was sent to the outside world to work for the rest of his life in order to benefit the Creedish church colony, and at the age of 23 all of his family had committed suicide when they were ordered to deliver themselves to god. Over 10 years, Tender Branson was cleaning the same house and he heard a social worker tell him that the remaining Creedish death cult workers were killing themselves or being killing to make it look like suicide each one by one. All his life, the poor narrator was told what to do, and he kept doing just that until the last day of his life. When Tender is the last known survivor of the Creedish cult, an agent wants to make him famous, and he starts by helping him escape being framed for the murder of his social worker. Tender Branson becomes a famous religious prophet who still believes he must kill himself eventually. They have him on all kinds of drugs, interviews and workouts. Many other religions do not take him seriously due to some books and bibles he did not write but were published in his name. Luckly he met Fertility Hollis at her brother Trevor's crypt, because she not only helped him take care of his fish number six forty one, but she also fed him with what they called miracles he needed to say on the air of his new TV show. She not only has dreams of the future and has an evil job, but she also saves him after his public super-bowl wedding when he became suspect for the murder of his agent. They go on a run with Tender Branson's long lost twin brother Adam in motile truck-homes and Ronald MacDonald houses. Tender must change his appearance while also suffering from attention withdraw symptoms. After Tender loses Fertility at a truck stop, his brother tell him he needs to get laid and finally become a powerful man. Unfortunately Adam will not even survive to see that day since he is blinded from a terrible car crash as a result of their visit back to the Creedish land, now 200 acres of porn sanitary landfills in western Nebraska. Finally, the day after he has sex, he gets on a plane to try and stop a possible hijacker, only to find out he is the hijacker and he will kill himself crashing the plane into southern Australia. Tender was not afraid of dying since he never truly lived his life. He was always limited with what he could wear, do, eat and say that he kinda just let loose after the Creedish all died. He smoked, drank and stole. But he never had sex, how he was brainwashed not to is all told in the flight deck recorder tape in the orange black box of the cockpit of flight 2039 straight to Sydney. As he tells his real story, the planes four engines run out one by one until it starts to descent slowly into the Australian outback. Tender Branson will always be remembered as a victim and a survivor too. Great Novel!

A book about screenplays and actresses, copying or even simply fooling one another. Divided by Acts and scenes from chapter to chapter, the story unfolds a mysterious tale of a girl named Hazie Coogan who met Violet eyed Katherine Kenton at the perfect time to make friends with her and teach her everything she knew so that together thry could make Miss Kathie into a serious celebrated and beloved performer, admired by all. Hazie's job title wasn't that of a friend, a helper or a maid, nor was it of an agent or teacher, but she did perform all of these duties. For years Hazie, also our narator, has steered Miss Kathie into the right direction, helping her avoid bad movie roles and bad men that would ruined her life, career and/or ruputation. After several husbands, pet dogs, facials and drugs, Katherine Kenton has reached a meltdown in her career even though she is still loved and worshiped by many fans for her respectable starring female roles in films. For several reasons she is depressed. She is alone and has recently lost her pekingese named Loverboy. The root beer color eyed Webster Carlton Westward III, who was the only guest to show up to the funeral, might just be Katherine's lastest husband or perhaps victim? Fastforward to after he and Katherine hit it off real nice and he moves in with her. Even after she started having orphanages come over and present to them little children or babies for them to adopt. Hazie finds a manuscript in his suitcase. The title is LoveSlave and it's written by Webster Carlton Westward III. It's a lie-ography, as Walter Winchell would say, written about Miss Kathie's life with Webster until she tragically died suddenly. This is a discovery that reveals that he must actually be attempting to murder his soon to be wife in order to become famous with his book! Later, after several attempts to have Miss Kathie killed, she is fighting for her life and performing at her best during Lillian Hellman's play, her own version of Pearl Harbor starring Miss Kenton as herself. This is also Katherine's giant comeback, which she knew would preceed her own death, but she still refused to tell the police in order to preserve her safety status with the press...and continue making passionate love with Webster Carlton Westward III. Would she be electricuted in her bath tub or attacked by grizzly bears? Maybe even run over by a bus or even perhaps stabbed to death? What if an armed man broke into Katherine Kenton's town house at night? What then? Can any of her ex husbands save her or will they all already be dead? Well the truth is revealled at the end and all is well for Hazie. Poor ugly girl had suffered enough trama. The story is told as any biography would be told, but with a twist! Of course, this is Chuck Palanuik here! Many will die and some even framed in the process. Pay attention to the many details! Once again another brillant piece of work from my favorite author!

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Also as a film with Will Farell. movie.